


Discovery, Discovery, Discovery

by alchemystique



Series: Discovery [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Captain Duckling, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-04
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 21:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2402954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemystique/pseuds/alchemystique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which the curse never happened. - David and Emma have a dance lesson, but they're both being distracted by Emma's guest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discovery, Discovery, Discovery

_Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery. ~Martha Graham_

David has been a royal for long enough to know that this is...hardly proper. 

The hall is small, and the dance they are working on isn't terribly difficult, but his daughter seems to be having trouble focusing. 

_Seems_ is a bit of an understatement. She's supposed to be practicing this dance for a ball held in her honor, in honor of her _return_ to the kingdom after nearly two years of thinking her lost to them forever. Snow had insisted David take the lessons with her, based solely on the number of times he's stepped on his own wife's toes over the course of their marriage ("Are you calling me ungraceful?" "I love you, and I'm telling you you have two left feet, Charming.")

All of these things together don't add up to the very serious lack of concentration Emma has right now. 

He can't help but shoot another glare into the corner of the room, where a very uninvited guest is leaning casually against the wall, smirking back at David as if he's enjoying the complete exasperation on David's face.

"Daddy, you're not paying any attention at all," Emma says, and David catches the glimmer of teeth from the corner as he turns to look at his daughter. She's smiling, a wide and happy grin that he knows is only partly for him, her shoulders swaying slightly as she holds out her hand in perfect stance for the dance. 

"Right. Paying attention now." 

The instructor merely rolls his eyes as they return to the first steps of the dance, and David tries very hard not to shoot him a commiserating look.

They twirl and spin appropriately for a while, Emma getting progressively more and more annoyed with the dance master as he reminds her endlessly to keep her gaze away from her feet while the man in question grumbles about the outfit she'd decided on for this little lesson.

David feels exactly the same.

She'd come back with quite a few surprises, but her manner of dress is a talking point for the entire castle - where once she'd flounced about the kingdom in pretty dresses with flowing skirts, she's spent the last few years running about a pirate ship, a place where dresses seemed to be in short supply. The trousers aren't that difficult to get used to - Snow had spent the better part of their first years together in them, and it's not as though it's unheard of for women to dress like the men of the realm do. No. It's not that. It's the obscene amounts of black leather - her red tunic is topped by a leather vest that cuts close to her body, the heels of her leather boots click obnoxiously across the stonework despite the dance masters ardent request that she wear the proper heels for a ball, and David is having a hard time understanding how she can possibly be moving as well as she is the those leather trousers. The belt across her hip is (thankfully) without it's usual cutlass, but David can see Master Harvel glaring at it every time they twirl.

Emma's only response has been to promise to wear a dress to the ball. Small miracles, David reminds himself. 

Harvel adds a new step to the dance, and they practice at it for barely more than a moment before Emma stumbles over her own feet (it runs in the family, apparently), the only thing keeping her from falling is David's hand on her arm.

The snort of laughter from the corner of the room makes Emma pause, and she shoots their guest a glare. 

"Graceful as a swan, you are," the man says, and Emma crosses her arms over her chest, every bit his diplomatic princess as she proceeds to stick her tongue out at the man.

"I'd like to see you try!" 

Harvel sighs at the distraction, and David fights hard to keep from palming his face as the man gets a glint of a challenge in his eye. "I'll do better than _try_ , darling," he says, and he feels a groan coming on as the two stare each other down for a moment. "If your father won't mind."

Emma's expression is ten different kinds of pleading, and David sighs as he waves a hand vaguely in the direction of the corner. "Be my guest," he says, and Emma grins, watching patiently as the man saunters (there's really no other word for it) across the length of the hall.

Harvel opens his mouth with some sort of instruction for the pair, but the pirate merely raises an eyebrow in the masters direction, shutting the man up in a hurry. "I bloody well know how to waltz."

"Wait, are you saying you've done this before?" Emma looks delighted and baffled.

"Don't sound so surprised. There's only one rule, love. Pick a partner who knows what he's doing."

Shockingly enough, it doesn't actually sound like a jab at David's admittedly poor dancing ability, and he's readying himself to actually give the man the benefit of the doubt when he notices the look being shared between Emma and her former pirate captain.

He hopes it's former, anyway.

The man is annoyingly spectacular, leading Emma effortlessly across the floor, and even Harvel seems to find little fault in the dance. 

Even David is beginning to enjoy watching them - there's something fluid and easy in the way they move together, something that reminds him of himself and Snow, down to the soft smile on his daughters face and the softening of the usual broody glare her partner is so often seen with. It's fairly enchanting, really, and as the dance comes to a close David actually holds his hands up to clap.

Emma shrieks with happy laughter as the man dips her low, her hair falling from its pins and nearly brushing the floor as her partner leans low over her with a sharp grin curling his lips, and Harvel coughs, his face bright red as they both finally pull back up to standing.

"Well - that's not - hmm," says Harvel, and Emma bats at the pirates shoulder.

"You're embarrassing people, Killian," she says, and the man at least has the grace to pretend to look apologetic about it. Or at least, he would, if he didn't still have an arm draped across the span of Emma's back, and they weren't barely a hairs breadth apart from one another, their hips tucked in close and their chests nearly touching.

"The horror," he tells her, completely monotone, and she merely rolls her eyes at him.

David, for all that he wonders where the young girl who'd been abducted by Regina's knights has gone to, can't help but smile as his daughter ducks out from under Killian Jones' arm, earning a look from the man that David would call a _pout_ , if he were so inclined. 

His naïve little princess is long gone, and though he mourns for that girl, the one who'd been so firmly a daddy's girl only a few years ago, he can't help but feel the pride of seeing her turn into such a force to reckon with - she's bested him in every practice fight they've had since she returned, her ability to lay out war strategies has left even the smartest of his councilors wordless, and unless he's very much mistaken she'd managed to drink Grumpy right under the table when she'd snuck out to the tavern a few nights ago (this is not a thing he should find pride in, but...he's never been able to keep up with Grumpy).

She's enchanting, and beautiful, and one day she will make a very excellent queen. 

He only wishes she'd chosen a different man to take up his own place on the throne.

A pirate. It's hardly a small sticking point, considering the kinds of stories he's heard about the infamous _Captain Hook_ , but David can't fault the man for falling in love with his daughter, nor for breaking her out of Regina's tower (an accident, he'd told Snow, "I was looking for treasure, but all I managed to find was a bit of gold with a bad attitude." "Best accident of your _life_ ," Emma had muttered back to the amusement of all.), not even for taking her halfway around the world before finally returning to her realm.

He _can_ fault him for the sheer number of times the guards have seen him climbing up the tower walls into Emma's chambers, but David can't find it in him to unleash his daughters ire over being spied on, so he keeps that to himself.

Emma laughs at something Jones says, rolling her eyes again as he gives her a mocking little bow, bending low to press his lips to the back of her hand, lingering for longer than David is particularly comfortable with. 

"Go _away_ ," she finally says, her head tilting to the side as she smiles softly at him. "You're distracting us."

His grin makes David squirm. "Is that an order, your highness?"

"It's a firm request, _Captain_. I think you'd know the difference."

Jones hums low in his throat, and David coughs pointedly. Neither one of them acknowledge the noise. 

"As you wish, milady," he says on a wink, and he nods firmly at David as he finally, finally turns to leave the room.

Emma's eyes follow him all the way out the door.

They both jump when Harvel claps his hands together, looking like he's seen enough inappropriate behavior to last him a couple lifetimes. "Shall we?" The man gestures vaguely at them, and Emma slides into place, falling into perfect stance as she smiles at David. It's a different smile than he remembers, less childish, but happier, brighter and more free than he thinks it ever was before, and as they swing back into the dance they've been working on, David can't help but wonder at the likelihood of two pairs of True Loves in a single lifetime.


End file.
